


Move a Little Closer

by RavenXavier



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Charles and Erik are the center of the world, Everybody wants to help, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Moira is badass, Multi, Nobody is good at this love thing, Or not, Romantic Comedy, Sean is determined, This was supposed to be crack people
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-30
Updated: 2012-12-30
Packaged: 2017-11-22 21:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/614504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenXavier/pseuds/RavenXavier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>HIATUS.Sean's in love. Somehow, everybody gets involved in the story, mostly because it's easier to help with other people's problems rather than to face his own. Of course, as always, it's entirely Charles and Erik's fault to begin with, so if things turn ugly at a certain point, the blame is all on them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Move a Little Closer

**Author's Note:**

> So. I don’t think I’ve really seen a fiction mostly about Sean before, which is sad, because Sean is awesome. So, I began to wrote that, and it was supposed to be crack, but then it wasn’t anymore, mostly because for some reasons nobody wanted Sean and Moira to end up together (except Sean. And maybe Moira. A little.). But, Happy Ending people. I don't know how to do sad endings. :). 
> 
> The title comes from "Accidentally in love" from the Counting Crows. 
> 
> Thanks to flowermasters for beta-reading !

The whole story began, of course, because of Erik and Charles – which, if you knew them, wasn't that surprising.

Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier met on a rainy day in September when they were ten and had become inseparable as soon as presentations were over. Raven, who was the only one to have witnessed the historical moment, liked to tell to all their new friends that, even though they had fallen in love almost immediately, they decided to make everybody suffer by denying it for the next eight years and declaring with blind conviction that they wanted nothing more than friendship. That testimony, though judged "ridiculous" by Erik and "quite exaggerated" by Charles, was confirmed later on by Emma Frost, Charles' first (and last) girlfriend, and a "deeply traumatized" Alex Summers, Raven's best friend. 

They _did_ stop this nonsense during Erik's last year in high-school, of course; on a sunny day this time, during a party for Raven’s sixteenth birthday. Raven still claimed that this had been the best gift ever, even if she _hadn't_ really wanted to see her brother and Erik kissing each other silly half-naked in the swimming pool at the time (of course, later, this event would appear quite innocent compared to what she would walked in on regularly during the years that followed).

It could have been assumed, at this point, that _the years that followed_ would be filled with disgusting happiness, too many shows of affection in public and promises of undying love between Erik and Charles. And for a while, it was exactly that. Alex had named these few months "The Bliss" with a deep, nostalgic look on his face, which was absolutely _not_ due to the seven beers he had already had. Unfortunately for everyone, "The Bliss" came to an end the day Charles had received his letter from Oxford. To this day, Raven and Alex still refused to talk about what had been said between Charles and Erik, which actually revealed a great deal of things, as Raven and Alex never missed an occasion to talk about Charles and Erik's epic love story. 

The facts, in any case, didn't lie; Charles left for Oxford, and Erik stayed to study at Columbia. For the next two years (during which Alex met Darwin, who knew Angel pretty well, who was Sean's best friend since _forever_ ) the two men didn't speak to each other at all. 

“The Rift” (another nickname of Alex’s) ended when Charles came back from England with a Ph.D. in genetics (because Charles was indeed a genius – he was less smart than Hank, but far more so than Sean, obviously) and decided that he didn't want to teach just yet because he was too young. Instead, he began his studies all over again, this time in psychology. At _Columbia._ To Raven and Alex's relief, Charles and Erik didn't wait another eight years before getting back together. In fact, approximately a week after they had been reunited (although reluctantly), they arrived late at the group's usual _Saturday Night Evening at The Bar,_ looking ridiculously happy and holding hands like teenagers. Sean was still quite pleased to have been there – even though he had never seen either of them in his life before that night, he knew their tragic story as if it was some kind of great literary classic – which, in this group, it kind of was. 

And thus should have come the story's _Happy Ending_ and “The Bliss” 2.0. But, well, Charles and Erik were not, despite what Raven said, characters in a book. They were both arrogant and very, _very_ stubborn, and their relationship, though as intense and sincere as before, took a unexpected turn after their two years of separation. They had once been able to agree to disagree with laughter and the innocence of youth. About a month after they got back together, they discovered ( _everybody_ discovered) that this time was obviously gone for good. 

And _that,_ dear fellows, was the exact reason why it was entirely Charles and Erik's fault that three years later Sean met Moira at the door of their apartment and fell _seriously_ in love for the first time in his life. 

  
  


= = =

"You know what, Charles? Go to hell!"

Erik got up, took his coat, which was lying miserably under the table for some unknown reason, and stormed out of the apartment without a goodbye to the rest of his friends. Said friends promptly looked at Charles, whose face was dangerously pale.

"Drama queen," he muttered softly, staring at the door.

Sean held his breath, as did the others. After a fight, Charles was fairly unpredictable, contrary to Erik. Erik was astonishingly good at showing his anger, but Charles ... Well, Charles was perfectly capable of smiling and pretending that nothing had happened and that he was the happiest man in the world. Raven had guessed that it was a consequence of their childhood education. As Raven was the one who knew Charles best after Erik, this theory had pretty soon become fact to everyone.

Charles did finally smile, but it was weak and distracted.

"I'm sorry, Raven, but I think I'm going to go home now, alright? I have some work to do and, really, it's not appropriate for me to drink at three in the afternoon anymore, being a professor and all that. It was very good to see you all, of course. We meet at Marvel's on Saturday night, as usual?" He didn't wait for an answer before he nodded to no one in particular. "Perfect. Good afternoon, everyone!"

Five minutes later, Charles was gone for good, and everyone glanced at each other knowingly.

"Soo ..." Alex began.

"Sorry, guys, I won't be able to deal with Erik today," Angel immediately said. "I'm supposed to help Logan at the bar in an hour."

"I can't go either." Raven frowned. "I'm meeting Mrs. Adler and her son today."

The girls looked at Darwin. It was no use to ask Alex and Sean, of course, because Alex had a tendency to take Charles's side without even wanting to and angering Erik even more than before, whereas Sean was simply terrified of Erik when he was in a bad mood. Darwin, though, was such a chill guy that he always had a lot of success with Erik – he generally waited in silence while the man repeated his "Charles-is-such-an-idiot” speech and bought him a drink when he was finished.

"I'll go, then," Darwin sighed. "It's not like I was going to study a lot for my exam today anyway. Do you think I should try the park first or DC's?"

"The bar," Raven advised. "I didn't really get why they were arguing this time, but it looked like a big deal."

"When doesn't it?" Darwin asked dryly while grabbing his own coat. "Angel, Sean, I'll see you guys on Saturday!"

"Good luck, man!" Alex said. "Oh, and don't forget to bring back pizza or something tonight. There's nothing left in the fridge!"

Darwin rolled his eyes and left with a last smile for them. It was Sean's turn to get up next. Alex had told them before Charles and Erik's newest argument that he had to go see his family later in the day, so it stood to reason that the duty of going after Charles would fall upon Sean by default, despite the fact that he had a class at six. He kissed Angel's cheek.

“You know what, maybe one day we should ask ourselves why we decide to meet here to drink in the afternoon knowing full well that we all have later engagements," he declared. "It's not like it's a surprise when they do things like that. We could at least clear our schedules or something."

Angel snorted and patted his leg. "Maybe one day, baby. Go make tea for Charles, now."

Fortunately for Sean, who didn't like the cold very much, Charles and Erik's flat was not far from Raven, Alex, and Darwin's, and you had to pass in a highly frequented park to get there, which was always a great deal of fun because New Yorkers were mostly crazy people who did crazy things in places like those. However, he walked quickly this time, wondering if he was going to find a severely depressed Charles or an angry one. He honestly didn't know which one would be worse.

It turned out that Charles was neither of those when he arrived and let himself in (everybody had a spare key of the flat in the group, which was a good idea as Erik and Charles didn't bother to open their door more often than not). The man was sitting at his desk, brows furrowed, and was writing notes in the margins of a multitude of papers spread in front of him. He didn't seem to notice that Sean was watching him at all, and so Sean concluded that Charles was hiding in his bubble of crazy genius in order to forget about the fight. He felt vaguely relieved, as this Charles was the easiest one to care for – there would be no awkward conversations about feelings or tense silences or worse, tears. Sean would make tea and put a cup next to Charles's hand to be sure that he realized that it was there before it got cold, and then watch T.V while waiting for the man to come out of his bubble.

He did exactly that, and twenty minutes later he found himself searching for something good to watch – without much success. At this time of the day, you generally didn't have much choice - it was either old sitcoms (his grandma Susan was very fond of them) or cartoons. Sean finally settled for cartoons, then realized that he just had to suffer through one episode of _The Powerpuff Girls_ before being able to watch _Avatar: The Last Airbender_. Had she been there, Angel would have mocked him endlessly about his crush on Toph, but he knew that she did that only to hide her own weakness for Zuko, so he didn't mind. Actually, it would have been really nice to be with someone right now. Sean generally didn't like to be alone. It meant that he couldn't talk, something that usually became quickly uncomfortable for him. 

About an hour later, he went back to see Charles - only to realize that the man was in the exact same position Sean had left him in. Raven must have been right before - this fight _was_ a big deal. The tea had disappeared, though, so Sean took back the cup to fill it again and went to the kitchen. He grabbed some biscuits from one of the cupboards. Charles didn't raise his head from his work when he put them next to him carefully, but he did whisper a vague "thanks, darling" which was both hopeful and disturbing.

"Are you okay, prof?" Sean asked.

Charles nodded and Sean decided that it was answer enough. He sat down on the couch once more, starting to seriously wonder how long he should wait for Erik to come back. It wasn't as if he couldn't allow himself to miss one class, of course, but Mr. Nadir was such a fun teacher and his classes on the meta in film-making were easily Sean's favourites. He looked at his watch. Surely Erik would be here within an hour? He grabbed his phone. 

_Hey, man, what's up with Erik?_ he wrote to Darwin.

 _Still ranting,_ Darwin replied five minutes later. _This really was a big fight._

Sean sighed. The doorbell rang. He blinked and looked at the closed door, surprised, trying to think quickly of who could be here right now – no one came to mind. The only friends of Charles and Erik that he knew were his own friends, and they had long forgotten how to use the bell. So ... who the hell ...? 

"Charles!" an authoritative feminine voice called from behind the door.

Sean turned his head a second to see if Charles was going to react, but the bell rang again, and he wasn't going to make the girl wait until Charles noticed, so he got up and went to the door. There wasn't a girl behind it, though. There was a woman. There was an astonishingly gorgeous woman who was looking at him with both surprise and amusement, and she politely raised her little hand after a moment of awkward silence.

"Hello," she said. "You must be Sean Cassidy, right? I don't think that Charles talks about any other ginger friend ..."

Sean had to resist the urge to gape at her, which wasn't as easy as one would have thought. There was an astonishingly gorgeous woman in front of him _who knew his name!_

"Hi," he finally replied lamely while taking her hand in his own. "I'm Sean. The ginger friend, yeah, that's me. Um ... who are you?"

Fortunately for him, she seemed to think that he was funny instead of utterly pathetic and she smiled.

"I'm Moira," she answered. "One of Charles's friends. He is here, isn't he? He texted me an hour ago, telling me to come over and insult Erik for him."

Sean raised his eyebrows. "He _did_?"

Moira smiled again, though this time her grin was far less friendly. It was disturbingly hot, and Sean had to remind himself how to breathe.

"Well. He didn't say it like _that,_ but that's how I understood it anyway," she said. "Can I come in?"

He took a step back wordlessly and she walked in. Sean's eyes fell on her ass despite himself, and _god_. She removed her coat and turned back to him. Underneath, she was dressed in a white shirt and a black skirt that ended near her knees. She wore high-heels. And Sean was currently checking her out while she could clearly see him. He felt himself blush like he was twelve again when he met her gaze ( _What the hell?_ he thought, baffled by his own reactions).

"Charles is in his office," he informed her quickly.

"Is he working?” she asked.

"Yeah. I brought him tea and biscuits. He should be fine.”

It was her turn to look surprised.

"Have you been here for long?"

"I followed him here as soon as he left Raven's apartment. It's sort of an habit, you know, not to leave them alone after a fight, and everybody else had something to do, so ..."

Her smile came back with blinding intensity - or maybe that was just Sean. In any case, she looked at him with clear approbation, which made his heart beat faster in his chest.

"That's very nice," she commented. "I don't know if I could do that every time myself. I mean, they fight so _often_ and I have a job that doesn't allow me to be there for Charles as much as I'd like to. To be honest, I'm kind of relieved to know that you're doing that. When he's miserable, Charles is terrifying."

Sean snorted despite himself. "I think that an angry Erik is a bit scarier, really."

"I'm not particularly scared of Erik's tantrums." Moira shrugged calmly. "I've seen far worse in my life, and he knows it, so of course he tends to behave when I'm around ... Which isn't saying much as he is still Erik, but ..." Her dangerous smile came back. 

It was suddenly very clear to Sean what was happening: he was falling in love, very fast, and very hard. It was certainly not the first time he felt this way, but never before had this been so _intense._ Moira was hot and she wasn't afraid of Erik - the only other person that Sean knew who wasn't afraid of him was Darwin – and Darwin was a dude, while Moira ... Moira was very much a woman. As the realization came down upon him, his mouth suddenly opened without his consent, ready to try every lame pick-up line that he had in reserve. He tried to close it immediately, alarmed. Somehow, he was pretty sure that she would only run away if he said anything.

"I have to go," he managed to say, instead of _"Will you marry me?”_ "I have a class - soon. You'll take care of Charles, yes?"

"As if he were my own child," she answered very seriously.

Sean's heart skipped a beat. "You have a child?" he asked, startled.

She laughed. "No, I don't," she replied. "But I'm sure that I'll manage with Charles. He's very sweet and well-behaved."

This time, he couldn't help it. "Can I have your phone number?"

She raised her eyebrows. Sean gained back some of his confidence when she didn't say _no_ immediately. She looked exactly like the kind of girl who wouldn't hesitate to turn down a guy if she didn't want him near her. So he smiled, and put his absolutely-not-shaking hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"You have to understand," he said. "We don't usually leave Charles with strangers. I'm quite anxious about him, the poor boy, and if I had your phone number, I would certainly feel more relaxed."

She bit back a smile and Sean felt absurdly happy when she shook her head, amused, and got a pen out of her handbag and a piece of paper. She gave it to him with a more serious look on her face, though.

"I'm pretty sure that this isn't about Charles," she declared. "If it is, though, just send me a text and I'll text you back when Erik comes home."

He grinned. "Okay. I'll do that. Thank you, Moira."

"A number doesn't mean anything, Sean. We're clear about that?"

She was looking dangerous again. He wondered what job she could possibly have in order to master that kind of face. He tried to imitate her, but he was pretty sure that his eyes were full of stars or something, like in Raven's books, because she began to frown as if she was regretting her decision. He nodded quickly.

"We're clear about that," he promised. "Very clear."

  
  


= = = 

Sean sent a mental apology to Mr. Nadir and his awesome class and went directly to Marvel's when he finally had to leave Moira for good (she had to remind him that he was supposed to have class, actually. He might have forgotten before, as he’d been trying to talk to her as if they had all the time in the world).

Marvel's was a little bar near Columbia's campus. The only people who actually went there for a drink (or ten) were either very brave or very foolish. Even now, fours years later, Sean had still no idea if they were the brave ones or the foolish. It was Raven who had found it after a fight with Erik (in his defense, it was during the Rift, and Erik during the Rift was _not_ a very pleasant person to be around). She had fallen in love with the place as soon as she had put a foot in it and even after meeting Logan, she had stayed true to her new found love and brought all of them there on the Saturday of the same week. Like a lot of other things, it had soon become a tradition for them to meet there on Saturdays. It actually was a good bar, if you weren't put out by Logan, the bartender, or on the bad side of Thor Odinson, the bouncer. If you were lucky enough, you could even meet famous people (Sean was pretty sure that he had played a drinking game one Saturday in the presence of Tony Stark. Unfortunately, his memories were quite hazy and there were no photographs to prove it).

The bravest of them all, though, was definitely Angel, as one day she had decided that she needed money desperately and had asked Logan if he’d needed someone to work with him and Marie, his only waitress. To the shock of everyone, he had said yes (though Sean was pretty sure that Marie had something to do with that). Since then, Angel was working at Marvel's and thus it was exactly the place where Sean had to be right now.

Thor wasn't there yet when he arrived (during the day, Thor was the heir of a great European corporation who was trying to reproduce his success in New York.) Marie gave him a friendly smile when she saw him and he waved at her enthusiastically before going to the bar to meet Angel, who only raised an eyebrow to show her surprise.

"Shouldn't you be in class?" she asked.

"Angel," he said solemnly, as if she hadn't spoken. "I just met my future wife."

Angel looked far less impressed than she ought to be. Sometimes, she just was a shitty best friend. He knew what she thought of love, but still, shouldn't she be at least pretending to be excited and curious for him?

"Her name's Moira," he insisted. "She's hot and she's not afraid of Erik." 

"Really?"

Sean frowned. This really wasn't going like he had planned. Though, of course, he might have not gone to the best person, now that he was thinking about it. Sure, Angel had been his best friend in the whole word since they were babies, but if he really wanted love advice, he probably should have gone to Raven. Raven was the romantic one of the group - or, at least, her books talked about romantic things.

"I have her number," he tried again.

Angel rolled her eyes. "I'm very proud of you."

 _"Angeeeel,”_ he finally whined. "I fell in love. This is important. Please stop being a shitty best friend."

Angel raised her head and looked properly at him for a moment in silence. Then, she sighed and smiled at him, patting his hand gently.

"I'm happy for you, baby, you know I am, but it's not like it is the first time you have met _your future wife_ , is it?"

Sean could not exactly argue with that. After all, his first "future wife" had been Angel herself, when they were in sixth grade and he had been persuaded that they were meant for each other (why would they spent all their time together otherwise?). Then there had been Selene, and Keira, and Maeve (he still didn't like to think about Maeve, even after all these years) and, more recently, Alison. Still, it was different this time, he knew it.

"It's different this time," he repeated out loud.

"Sure," Angel said, with absolutely no sincerity. "Okay. Tell me about her, then."

It was good enough for Sean. Talking about Moira proved to be as easy as breathing, which wasn't that surprising as he loved to talk in the first place, and he was known to become some sort of poet when he was in love. He described her with a lot of details, called her beautiful several times, and compared her to the fall because of her pretty auburn hair, then proceed to repeat their conversation with as much accuracy as he could, hoping despite himself that Angel would have an opinion about it. He wasn't a girl, after all. He had no way to know if Moira liked him (as he thought she did) or if she had simply made fun of the ginger friend of Charles to entertain herself.

When he finally closed his mouth, he looked up to see Angel's reaction, and realized with indignation that she was at the other side of the bar, talking (no, _flirting_ ) with a client. He glared at her - not that she really noticed - and thought about ruining her conversation by playing her boyfriend in front of the guy (he had done that a lot of times before, to save her from clingy men. Surely he could do it again).

His evil plan for revenge was forgotten when his phone vibrated in his pocket. A bright smile appeared on his face when he realized that it was Moira.

_"Erik has come back. He's angry I'm here. That's not new. He went to see Charles. Your friend Armando is nice. M."_

_"Thank you very much, Moira. I hope Erik doesn't kill you; that would be a shame. Everybody calls Armando Darwin."_

_"Believe me, I'd kill Erik before he could lay a finger on me. Why Darwin?"_

_"Because everybody can't help but like him, which makes him the best person to adapt and survive. Would you, really? I bet Charles would not like that."_

_"That's the only reason he's still alive, to be honest. Charles and his damn blue eyes. That's nice, and kind of fitting :)"_

_"I always thought that Charles had some kind of super power. It's impossible to do something that he doesn't want you to do."_

_"Except if your name is Erik or Raven."_

Sean laughed out loud, his heart beating incredibly fast. He had missed being in love, he thought. There was something magical with being happy for the smallest things just because the person you loved were involved in them. He looked back at Moira's last message, hesitating on what to say next. He didn't want the conversation to end, obviously, but he couldn't start flirting - she didn't want that and, if he was to be honest with himself, he was kind of terrible at it anyway. The only reason Alison had agreed to go on a date with him last year was because she pitied him (Sean hadn't stayed in love with Alison very long, come to think about it).

 _"They're making out."_ Moira sent him before he could find a correct way to reply. _"I feel like one of us should not be here, and it's definitely not them."_

He grinned.

_"If they are going for make-up sex, you should get out of there as soon as possible."_

_"I can't believe I went all this way for nothing. I am not talking to Charles anymore."_

_"Well, you've met me? And Darwin. That can only be a good thing. ;)"_

_"Darwin sure looked like a great guy."_

"Marry me," he whispered to his phone. His smile was so wide now that his jaw was starting to ache. He began typing a response when his phone suddenly disappeared from his hands. He looked up immediately, ready to fight whoever had taken it, before he realized that it was only Angel. He made a small protest anyway because she should respect his privacy and all that, especially as she hadn't seemed to care just a few minutes before, but he shut up when she looked at him thoughtfully.

"I haven't seen that smile in a very long time, baby," she remarked.

Sean blinked then shrugged. "Well, I told you before. It's different this time."

  
  


= = =

"Please tell me something happy that has nothing to do whatsoever with me," Raven begged that Saturday night when she finally arrived at Marvel's.

Everybody looked at each other. The ambiance was strangely subdued that night, and even Sean, who was still floating on a happy cloud because of Moira, could feel the tension. The strangest thing about it was that it was _not_ because of Charles and Erik, who were sitting impossibly close, Charles's head half hidden in Erik's neck. No, the tension was clearly coming from Darwin and Alex, of all people. There had been an embarrassed scowl on Alex’s face since he had arrived, and Darwin looked angry – which was impossible in Sean's mind, as he had never seen Darwin _angry_ before. Clearly, there was nothing happy to share right now.

"Sean's in love," Angel suddenly said.

Oh. Well. There was that, yes. All his friends turned to him with different degrees of amusement on their faces.

"Who's the unlucky girl?" Erik asked.

"Her name's Moira," Angel replied for him.

He glared at her but she only winked. Did she not realize that she was talking about a friend of Charles and Erik? What if they decided to tell her? Oh god, what if they tried to be nice and talk to Moira about him ... They were so bad at that usually, and they only ended up telling embarrassing drunken stories (and yes, Sean was willing to admit, there were quite a lot of them).

"Moira?" Raven repeated with a funny voice. "As in, Moira MacTaggert?" 

Sean nodded. Surely there weren't a lot of other Moiras that Raven could know. She frowned and opened a mouth to say something, but Charles interrupted her before she could, looking at Sean with surprise.

"When have you met Moira?" he asked. "She's practically always working!"

"Wednesday," Sean replied. "At your apartment. I'm the one who opened the door for her, as you had forgotten that you had asked her to come over."

Charles looked even more bewildered, if possible. "You were there Wednesday?"

Sean grinned. "I'm hurt, prof. Don't you remember me lovingly bringing you tea and you calling me darling?"

"That's not the point," Raven said firmly. "I don't think that you should see Moira, Sean. She's not ... You should be with a nice, sweet girl, not her."

"Moira is very sweet!" Charles protested immediately.

Erik snorted. "No, she's not, Charles. Moira is a lot of things, but sweet is not one of them."

Sean frowned and crossed his arms on his chest. He certainly hadn't expected this kind of reaction, if he was to be honest. Not that he had really thought of telling Charles, Erik, and even Raven _before_ he had managed to convince Moira that they would be perfect together, but even in his worst scenarios, they'd generally tell him that he wasn't good enough for _her._ Not the opposite.

"I don't care if she's sweet or not," he said. "I'm in love with her."

"Oh, come on, man!" Alex scoffed next to Sean. "You met her Wednesday, you're not _in love with her_ ; you think she's hot, that's it. Attraction is not love. Have you not learned that yet in over twenty years of life?"

"Be nice, Alex," Darwin said coldly. "Some people do fall in love pretty fast. Why should Sean detract what he's feeling? There's nothing to be scared of! You should go for her, Sean. I met her, too; she seemed lovely."

"Sean has no _idea_ of what love is, Darwin!"

"Then he can learn! What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that it's going to ruin both of them if he pretends that it will work just like in a fairytale, like he always does!"

Sean blinked and turned to the rest of his friends, who were openly gaping at Alex and Darwin.

"Are they even talking about me, here? Did I miss something?" he asked.

"I think we all did," Angel replied dryly.

"Is this what it's like for you lot when Erik and I argue?" Charles asked.

Raven rolled her eyes. "No, it's not. We're used to see you two argue. We don't really pay attention anymore. Alex and Darwin, though ..."

They tried not to listen to the two boys anymore, but it was hard, especially for Sean, as he was still being used as some sort of metaphor for something else. His name came back regularly during the next ten minutes, before Darwin gritted his teeth and drank the rest of his tequila at once. Alex's face was red from anger when Darwin announced that he was tired and that he was going home. He left silently, Alex's eyes following him until he had passed in front of Thor.

An awkward silence followed.

"Should someone go after him like we do for these two?" Sean finally asked, uncertain.

"No," Alex answered sharply. "It's nothing like Erik and Charles. We're not a ... a _couple_."

"I'll go," Angel said. Alex glared at her but she shrugged and got up. "Don't look at me like that, Alex. The fact that you're not a couple seems to be the problem entirely, so ..."

It looked like Alex wanted to say something really not nice to her, so Sean, being an awesome best friend, kicked him in the leg as hard as he could.

"You fucker!" Alex hissed furiously. "I'm going to take another drink, at the bar, because if I don't, I'm going to hit you and you're insufferable when you cry."

Charles kissed the corner of Erik's mouth and followed the blond silently to the bar. In less than five minutes, Sean found himself alone with Raven and Erik, who looked at him expectantly. Sean was a bit lost about what they wanted from him.

"... What?"

"Don't go out with Moira, Sean," Raven said seriously.

" _If_ she wants to go out with you in the first place, which seems a bit unbelievable," Erik remarked calmly.

"What do you guys have against her, seriously?” Sean asked defensively.

Raven sighed and glanced at Erik, whose face had gone completely blank.

"She's in love with Charles," he said curtly. "Always has been. And I don't particularly like the way she decided that she can act like she wants around him even though I'm there. That's it, Sean."

  
  


= = =

  
Sean seriously thought about being depressed because of this new piece of information. Actually, he was sad during the rest of the evening and incapable of meeting Charles in the eyes when he came back to the table (without Alex). Raven patted his shoulder gently when they finally decided to leave, but it didn't feel that comforting, as he was in this mood because of her in the first place (and if he exaggerated just a little about that, well, nobody could really blame him, right?) He slept badly, too, but he wasn't sure if it was because he was miserable or because Raven, Darwin, and Alex's couch was an horrible thing to sleep on.

Sean wasn't one to stay depressed a long time, though. It just wasn't his style. He liked being happy and he had spent his life making sure to always see the positive side of things in order to _stay_ happy as much as he could. There was no one more optimistic than him in the world, he was sure. Even Charles, who saw the good in the worst people all the time, didn't measure up to Sean in that respect.

That's exactly why he put his disappointment and jealousy away when he woke up that Sunday and grabbed his phone immediately, ignoring his headache pointedly. He’d had the most fantastic dream about Moira and, surely, that couldn't be anything else than a sign from his subconscious to not give up on her just yet. So what if she was in love with Charles? She had to know by now that he and Erik were soul-mates. Which meant that she certainly didn't _want_ to be in love with him anymore. Which meant that she could totally forget Charles, thanks to Sean (and then Erik would be forever grateful, which, frankly, was a nice bonus).

 _"I don't think that Raven and Erik like you very much.”_ he wrote to her in a brilliant fit of inspiration.

She didn't answer right away, so Sean took the time to go to the bathroom and take a shower. Darwin was in the kitchen when he got out, making breakfast (though, really, it should have been lunch) and greeted him with a tired smile.

"You okay, man?" Sean asked, remembering how his friend had left the evening before.

"I'm fine," Darwin answered. "Sorry about yesterday. I made a show of myself."

"We've all been there," Sean shrugged.

Thankfully, that was the end of that particular conversation - Sean wasn't that good at comforting people. They fell into an easy and friendly argument about the last match of baseball while eating their breakfast and Raven joined them after a while, looking pale and sick but determined not to think about it. Alex didn't appear, but nobody said anything about his absence.

An hour later, Sean's phone vibrated. He tried to act as relaxed as he could in front of his friends as he read Moira's answer.

_"They don't like me at all, I know. I'm used to it. I don't care."_

_"They tried to tell me that I shouldn't talk to you,"_ he replied immediately.

_"And they apparently didn't succeed. I would have thought that you would trust your friends before me."_

He couldn't help but smirk.

_"Honestly, Moira, I know that you think that I have the worst ideas in mind, but we're just talking. You're fun to talk to."_

There wasn't any reply for a while but he managed to keep his anxiety and impatience in check. Maybe she was with family? It was Sunday, after all, most people were with their family on Sundays, right? He stopped looking at his phone every five minutes when he spotted Darwin's curious gaze on him. Raven hadn't noticed yet, but he certainly didn't want to explain to her that he was going to make Moira fall in love with him _despite_ her feelings with Charles, because he was pretty sure that she would try to tell him that it was a terrible idea (which it was _not._ It was perfect.)

 _"Am I ?"_ She simply answered after a while.

Was she looking for reassurance of was she being sarcastic? Sean liked texting but, sometimes, it was highly impractical.

 _"You are! But, you know, I'll stop talking to you if you don't like our brilliant conversations."_ he finally wrote after a moment of indecision.

To be honest, it wasn't as if they had talked a lot since their first meeting. There had been the first conversation that Angel had spied on, and then another on Friday, about Charles and winter and apples (Sean wasn't sure how apples had been introduced to the conversation, but he knew that he had laughed a lot thanks to it). And now, this. Sean _was_ optimistic, though. Always.

 _"Nah. They are quite brilliant,_ "she replied.

Oh, and Sean had _every_ reasons to be optimistic indeed. He beamed at his phone. Had Moira been there right now, it would have been very hard not to kiss her. He looked up and glanced at Raven, who wasn't paying attention at him at all, thankfully. He felt like he could explode at any moment with happiness.

Being in love, he decided while typing a new text to Moira, was the best feeling in the world.


End file.
